Down a dark alley, and not even a star to light the way

“Grace, Grace!” Luke called into the sky as he ran into the side road as the building ended. “Grace, will you get down here?”

“Lost someone mate?” the voice was not his own and masculine which ruled out a return of Grace. A police officer learns at an early point in their career to think. It sounds a simple thing, we all think every second of every minute of every day. Thousands of thoughts an hour each with its own unique viewpoint on the world; but many of them irrelevant or as far off topic that they are dismissed or put into special folders in the mind for further consideration later. What you need to do is look, process information most would pass over and select the most efficient course of action. Most of all to think. You learned this early in your career or sometimes you learn it right at the very end.

Four men had followed Luke into the side road which also held  a burning car surrounded by it's eager igniters but scarce of anything else, including further road or egress at the other end. Luke’s size and training didn’t set the weight on his side of the scales so he opted to back slowly away whilst keeping each of the figures in front of him even now as two tried to flank him to get behind.

“Good night to be out, having fun?” it was a poor attempt at building a bridge between the newcomers and himself, there is an urban legend that if you’re being followed and you fear an attack the best way to protect yourself is to turn and say hello to whoever is behind you to either shame them into changing their course of action or to promote yourself as a person in their eyes. This is of course inaccurate at best. The best course of action is to run if you are in a position to do so, head for a crowd or towards any gathering, public location or best still a pub. If you can’t and are confronted for your wallet, bag, phone or jewelry then throw it over the assailant's shoulder or away from where you can escape. This leaves two options for an attacker, go after what they want e.g something they can sell or go for you. Hope they opt for the money while you run. If they want something more personal then fight back, fight strong, make noise and show you’re not going to quit. It may not work but research shows it does in a lot of cases. Luke knew this, he taught it in schools when politely offered the assignment by all those more superior to him who didn’t fancy the task. If he got out of this he’ll have to rethink his spiel to include how hard it is to follow good advice when you’re up against the rockface.

“Good night for us but not so much for you my friend I think.” by now the men had covered enough ground that Luke could not comfortably watch them all without turning his head. He knew as soon as he looked away he was giving them an opportunity.

There was sniggering from each side and Luke counted his options and raised his fists when they numbered only one.